By a 5-4 vote the United States Supreme Court ruled on May 24 that landowners who sue local governments over land-use regulations are entitled to a trial by jury. The case, City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes, centered around plans for a 37 acre residential complex.

The city of Monterey had disallowed development on the beachfront saying the area was the native habitat for various plants, animals and the “endangered” Smith Blue Butterfly.

We´re in the home stretch of the eight year Presidency of Bill Clinton and with the time he has left Bill wants to insure that he leaves behind more than a string of legal bills and off color jokes about cigars and interns.

The plan that the President has come up with to secure his place in history is called the Lands Legacy Initiative and it fits in nicely with his grand designs for a one world government. It also would solve the problem with what to do with the farms and ranches left behind by farmers and ranchers after being drowned by a sea of red ink caused by a flood of imports.

The Filippinis and the Paris ranches in Central Nevada won a major decision in what has been a lengthy dispute with the Battle Mountain District of the Bureau of Land Management.

It all began in 1994, when the BLM issued a full force and effect decision that reduced the ranchers´ grazing by 50%. The fight did not end until May 26, 1999. That initial decision was overturned by an Interior Board of Land Appeals Judge Heffernan in Salt Lake City on July 31, 1995.